Turkey launches giant geoportal

ANKARA

Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Işık attends at the ceremony launching the Gezgin Geoportal, Aug. 19. AA Photo

The Turkish government has launched Gezgin Geoportal, a project that will provide a detailed image of the country’s landscape by the RASAT Satellite, with a member of the Cabinet calling it a “strategic” move at a time when the world has turned into a “Big Brother House.”

“There is great competition in the field of space industry. At a time when the world is becoming increasingly smaller and when everywhere is being observed like a BBG [the abbreviation of the Turkish version of the Big Brother television show] house; information, informatics and surveillance have become important in the world,” Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Işık said Aug. 19 at a ceremony launching the Gezgin Geoportal. The ceremony also marked the third anniversary of the launching of Turkey’s first earth observation satellite, the RASAT Satellite.

“It is obvious this is a very strategic situation for us because we are living in a region full of problems. Particularly the recent developments [in Syria and Iraq] have raised regional risks and threats. It is an irrefutable truth that we need space technology both for our security and development plans. That’s why our success in regard to both the RASAT and Göktürk-2 satellite are very big steps for our country,” Işık added.

The ceremony was held at TÜBİTAK UZAY, the Space Technologies Research Institute of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), inside the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) campus.